http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/01/1...the-ctm-story/

13 01 2010


Me ~ ctm

by charles the moderator

Many of you know me by my sometimes flippant moderation comments here. Sometimes concern is
expressed over my anonymity since Anthony occasionally berates some who comment here for hiding
behind anonymous Internet handles. Anthony long ago accepted my personal reasons for maintaining
my anonymity and I have personally contacted others who expressed concerns and have given them
explanations to which no one to date has refused to accept.

I am the head moderator here, with administrative as well as moderation privileges. I supervise
the other moderators and sometimes publish posts, or correct typos as needed. Despite the
accusations from Drs. Mann, Hansen et al., I have yet to meet my corporate overlords, view my
directives from above, or receive a single cent for my hundreds of hours of services.

Here's the story of how I was one of the very first to see the CRU files and what transpired.


On Tuesday November 17th I was at my desk, browsing the web and moderating at the same time when
the now infamous post came in from user FOIA at 6:25 PST.

We feel that climate science is, in the current situation, too important to be kept under wraps.

We hereby release a random selection of correspondence, code, and documents.

Hopefully it will give some insight into the science and the people behind it.

This is a limited time offer, download now:

http://ftp.tomcity.ru/incoming/free/FOI2009.zip

Sample:

0926010576.txt * Mann: working towards a common goal

.. and so on.

As I noted previously in The CRUtape LettersT, an Alternative Explanation, when I saw this comment
I immediately embargoed the comment and placed warning brackets around it for the other moderators.
I have been a 'net user long enough to be very very concerned about downloading files off a Russian
server, so the first thing I was concerned about was that this was an attack on us and our users. I
downloaded the file and scanned it for viruses and Trojans and it came up clean. Then I stated
viewing the contents and once I saw what we had, I started firing off emails to Anthony who was in
Europe at the time - such as this one less than 2 hours later:

From me:

It looks real. It looks like it contains code from MBH 98 to CRU indexes. It has over a thousand
emails.

And this a few minutes later.

From me:

No bad stuff detected. This from a real mole or one of the most elaborate hoaxes ever produced.

emails from Mann, Briffa, Jones.

Reviews of papers by Jones. Code and much much more.

Anthony Watts - wrote:

ok you've opened it I take it? No virus or trojan detected?
A

I talked to Anthony on the phone and we decided not to go public until Anthony returned, for all
sorts of reasons including potential legal issues. In this first couple of hours I also burned a CD
for Steven Mosher and gave it to him, and I also contacted Steven McIntyre. I swore both of them
to secrecy until Anthony returned from Europe and he could be fully involved in the process. At
this time none of us knew of the upload to realclimate.org or had noticed the "a miracle just
happened" post on climateaudit.org. We believed we were exclusively sitting on The Pentagon Papers
of our decade and had no knowledge that links were disseminated elsewhere.

For the next day the two Steve's were constantly on the phone, with Mosher reading email after
email to McIntyre. I had not given the link to Mosher as I was trying to control any traceable
spread of the information. We had no idea where this was all headed and caution was in order. I
made Steven Mosher promise to not electronically send a copy to Steve McIntyre, but I gave him a CD
he could ship to McIntyre as long as it arrived after Anthony had returned from Europe. They were
extremely anxious to go public and Mosher kept begging me for permission and my response was very
low key. "If this is as important as it appears to be, then two or three days won't make any
difference, besides, we need to keep my word to Anthony".

Then on the morning of the 19th we became aware that CRU was in lockdown mode and sending word that
files were circulating on the Internet. I immediately found the comment on Jeff ID's site by simply
doing a Google search on the ftp site link. Jeff hadn't noticed this post because he was out
hunting during the above period. This was a game changer, CRU was trying to lock down the files and
we were not exclusively in possession. Anthony was in the air about to land in Dulles but the cat
was now out of the bag and Steve Mosher started posting on Lucia's blog and about the same time I
posted an email on Bishop Hill's blog in the Caspar and the Jesus paper thread under the username
devilinthedetails. I believe Steve Mosher may have contacted Tom Fuller around the same time.

Just as this was all breaking open, our anonymous leaker expressed concern that their revelations
were being ignored or missed, a comment which I no longer have as I overwrote it with the
following:

FOIA (13:16:16) : edit

[A lot is happening behind the scenes. It is not being ignored. Much is being coordinated among
major players and the media. Thank you very much. You will notice the beginnings of activity on
other sites now. Here soon to follow. ~ ctm]

Now I get to go all Andy Rooney Paul Harvey [D'0h! ~ ctm] on y'all. Many wonder why I selected
Steven Mosher to be the first recipient of the files. Well, I knew he was eminently qualified to
examine them, much more qualified than myself. Proximity was also a factor. Steve Mosher is my
roommate. So I saw him sweating on the phone with Steve McIntyre for a day and a half while I was
calmly making coffee in the kitchen espousing patience. And since this story is too important to
have any contributors remain anonymous, my name is Charles Rotter and I live in San Francisco. And
that's the rest of the story.